Bohanan founded the corporation in 1997 and currently the corporation serves a wide range of industries, including automotive, boating, homeland security, energy and power, architectural and general industrial hardware.

He said the first facility was located in the Tech 2020 Park, then moved again about a year later, finally locating to the Bethel Valley Industrial Park in 2005.

In 2005, Protomet applied for and received the first PILOT.

“That was Phase I,” Bohanan said. “We completed the PILOT and met all our goals. We’re looking to set another milestone to complete the next phase.”

He said he hopes to break ground in May for the expansion.

Once the expansion is done, Protomet will have a total workforce of about 65 employees, after hiring about 25 more workers.